(2020) Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Springbok

Karen
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After about 15-20 hours of playing, I’m of the opinion that this game is a step back from Odyssey in most ways.
Tend to agree, it's just extremely formulaic. The best thing about it to me is the story (lulz) and the game looks great maxed out of PC. Easily the best looking Ubishit game I've ever played. They just throw way too much bullshit in these games and they need a competent director to focus these games in more. It's just too much of basically everything. Even now I'm sort of just mainlining the story quests and it still takes fucking forever. I've essentially stopped grabbing anything including gear/abilities as I just don't really give a fuck, especially as gear is basically meaningless and all power is tied to your skill points.
 

Blitz

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This is a pretty good read. Read it before he's cancelled!


I agree with his take that by misrepresenting the Saxons (and that time period in general) the way they do, and the way many outlets often do, it inadvertently creates this hilarious "pro-colonialism/slavery/Nordicism" stance. Which we all know "woke" Ubisoft would never knowingly partake in. The authors conclusion is a bit corny though - at the end of the day it is a "Viking" game. As evidence by their "World Events" writing, I'm certainly not going to hold Ubisoft's feet to the fire for their lack of historical accuracy, they just aren't that smart or clever of a studio.

It's a solid article for sure, I have saved his "Fremen Mirage" series for a later read.
 
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a_skeleton_05

<Banned>
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The series has become an outright blend of sci-fi and fantasy, with people that possess physical abilities that can only be seen as superpowers. The historical stuff is just set dressing.

Everyone dodging around at superhuman speeds
7 feet tall giants (including women)
Machine gun bows
Arrows that destroy thatch, drawbridge chains, and cause oil jugs to explode like a cluster bomb.
Several hundred year old merchant kid
Aliens
And many others

It's fine if you accept it for what it is. Paying attention to the many faults with historical accuracy and their obvious diversity efforts is a lost cause. Women are strong. Christianity is bad. Islam will never be criticized in a similar way. It's a brave new assassins creed
 
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Daidraco

Golden Baronet of the Realm
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The entire game is an outright slander to Vikings, the Norse, Christians, Saxons, etc. Where the game tries to make up for each of those groups/factions shortcomings, it slams them down even further in another. Just the fact that I had four?.. I think? gay invitations in the games MSQ versus what.. two? straight invitations was odd. Much less, I think all of them were from vikings which the closest word for gay back then was níð which is basically a slander in the lightest of definitions from what I understand.

But truly, I could give a shit about whats in a video game and enjoy it for what it is.
 
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Big Phoenix

Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Wolf wife
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Valderen

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I'm now 60 hours in and only have complete 4 regions Story Arc. I'm in for a very long playthrough it would appear. :)

Of these 4 regions, I have gotten every single wealth, artifacts, and little gold treasures. For the most part I also did all the Mysteries except 2 Anomalies that are bugged, and 1 of the 3 sisters that still kick my ass. I also killed most of the Zealots in those zones.

I did do a little detour to go get all the pieces of the Hidden Ones Armor Set which meant going to some higher level zone, I skipped most of the content and just went for the set pieces. I cheated and google their general locations, not the specifics on how to actually find them.

I am now in Lundun, where I've gotten all the wealth, mysteries and artifacts and starting on the story arc.

I'm enjoying the story arc of each region, and the overall story arc. I like the Mystery puzzle like the mushrooms, the ones where you need to align the symbols. They are not hard but fun to figure out. I also like the anomalies aside from the fact that they are bugged. I hope they fix that soon.

I'm also enjoying how some of the treasures require a little bit of thinking sometimes to get to them with shooting lock through windows, or finding a passage. Nothing hard by any means but just a little bit of thinking to be fun, but not annoyingly so.

I love the fishing and hunting to complete the stuff at the hunting lodge and fishing hut. It's a nice distraction once in a while.

I'm doing the dailies from Rada, but haven't seen anything really worth buying with the Opals. Nothing really impressive on the Store to be honest. Maybe there will be something cool in the future to get.

The main issue I have with combat is that it seems that Adrenaline generates too slowly making it too restrictive to use abilities, I seem to remember being able to use my abilities far more consistently in Odyssey. The abilities are generally pretty nice but just can't seem to be able to use them enough. At this point I find it more useful to keep Dive of the Valkyrie level 2 to break down the doors that are locked from the other by diving beside them.

I'm pretty sure I'm heading to 140+ hours to complete it the way I play. The main issue is that I will most likely not be done before Cyberpunk. I guess I'll have to push that a little if not.

The AC games might not be the best games, but they sure do push all my buttons in term of open world exploration. Even though Fast Travel is actually fast now, I still walk or ride most of the time since I just love traveling through the environment, it seems there's always a sunset or sunrise. :)
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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I got to the part where you have to fight in Assguard, finished one quest and realized there's more to go, so I decided to start jet-ramming people on Golmud Railway.
 
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Punko

Macho Ma'am
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I'm now 60 hours in and only have complete 4 regions Story Arc. I'm in for a very long playthrough it would appear. :)

Of these 4 regions, I have gotten every single wealth, artifacts, and little gold treasures. For the most part I also did all the Mysteries except 2 Anomalies that are bugged, and 1 of the 3 sisters that still kick my ass. I also killed most of the Zealots in those zones.

I did do a little detour to go get all the pieces of the Hidden Ones Armor Set which meant going to some higher level zone, I skipped most of the content and just went for the set pieces. I cheated and google their general locations, not the specifics on how to actually find them.

I am now in Lundun, where I've gotten all the wealth, mysteries and artifacts and starting on the story arc.

I'm enjoying the story arc of each region, and the overall story arc. I like the Mystery puzzle like the mushrooms, the ones where you need to align the symbols. They are not hard but fun to figure out. I also like the anomalies aside from the fact that they are bugged. I hope they fix that soon.

I'm also enjoying how some of the treasures require a little bit of thinking sometimes to get to them with shooting lock through windows, or finding a passage. Nothing hard by any means but just a little bit of thinking to be fun, but not annoyingly so.

I love the fishing and hunting to complete the stuff at the hunting lodge and fishing hut. It's a nice distraction once in a while.

I'm doing the dailies from Rada, but haven't seen anything really worth buying with the Opals. Nothing really impressive on the Store to be honest. Maybe there will be something cool in the future to get.

The main issue I have with combat is that it seems that Adrenaline generates too slowly making it too restrictive to use abilities, I seem to remember being able to use my abilities far more consistently in Odyssey. The abilities are generally pretty nice but just can't seem to be able to use them enough. At this point I find it more useful to keep Dive of the Valkyrie level 2 to break down the doors that are locked from the other by diving beside them.

I'm pretty sure I'm heading to 140+ hours to complete it the way I play. The main issue is that I will most likely not be done before Cyberpunk. I guess I'll have to push that a little if not.

The AC games might not be the best games, but they sure do push all my buttons in term of open world exploration. Even though Fast Travel is actually fast now, I still walk or ride most of the time since I just love traveling through the environment, it seems there's always a sunset or sunrise. :)

Its a great game. I did prefer Odyssey setting, but that is subjective.

I'm also doing the collect all thing, it is pretty satisfying.

My enjoyment of the game increased a lot since I started spamming heavy attack to prevent fall damage.
 

Punko

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I got to the part where you have to fight in Assguard, finished one quest and realized there's more to go, so I decided to start jet-ramming people on Golmud Railway.

Fighting on the bifrost to close the door was cool.
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Fighting on the bifrost to close the door was cool.
Yea it was, I just don't like 1st person games that snap between characters like that. I didn't like switching between Geralt and Ciri either.

I'm sure i'll end up switching back over and playing more eventually, just gotta be in the right mood for it. I've never been a hardcore gamer and only ever raided in Everquest and WOW once each. Destiny was the only time I really raided and was shooting for server firsts, and anyone that was there with me (Dwreck808) probably remembers that I was salty as fuck about trying the same shit over and over again for hours. I'm a filthy casual to the max and can tolerate about 3 minutes of annoyance in a game before I switch to a different one or just watch Fury for the 57th time. Playing in Assguard really isn't that big of a deal, it's more of a "Meh, not what I'm in the mood for".
 

Punko

Macho Ma'am
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Yea it was, I just don't like 1st person games that snap between characters like that. I didn't like switching between Geralt and Ciri either.

I'm sure i'll end up switching back over and playing more eventually, just gotta be in the right mood for it. I've never been a hardcore gamer and only ever raided in Everquest and WOW once each. Destiny was the only time I really raided and was shooting for server firsts, and anyone that was there with me (Dwreck808) probably remembers that I was salty as fuck about trying the same shit over and over again for hours. I'm a filthy casual to the max and can tolerate about 3 minutes of annoyance in a game before I switch to a different one or just watch Fury for the 57th time. Playing in Assguard really isn't that big of a deal, it's more of a "Meh, not what I'm in the mood for".

Just use exploits to minimize annoyance; spam heavy attack during a fall, you won't take fall damage. There are also skills that let you open a barred door from the outside (dive of the valkyries lvl 2 and at least one other ..)
 

Punko

Macho Ma'am
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The main issue I have with combat is that it seems that Adrenaline generates too slowly making it too restrictive to use abilities, I seem to remember being able to use my abilities far more consistently in Odyssey. The abilities are generally pretty nice but just can't seem to be able to use them enough. At this point I find it more useful to keep Dive of the Valkyrie level 2 to break down the doors that are locked from the other by diving beside them.

If you equip two 2-handed axes, you can use the heavy attack to break door bars from the outside, without using adrenaline.
 
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Ritley

Karazhan Raider
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Fighting on the bifrost to close the door was cool.
Pretty sure I just ran by all of the fighting in the bifrost, just like every other raid-type fight. Doesn’t make sense to waste time killing your way through for nearly non-existent exp when just running by it all takes a fraction of the time. The dude in front of the door was red skull at my level though, had to bait him away long enough to close the door.
 
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Bandwagon

Kolohe
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Pretty sure I just ran by all of the fighting in the bifrost, just like every other raid-type fight. Doesn’t make sense to waste time killing your way through for nearly non-existent exp when just running by it all takes a fraction of the time. The dude in front of the door was red skull at my level though, had to bait him away long enough to close the door.
That's what was pissing me off about that part. I had to try 6 times before I realized I could just blow past all the giants and go around the back side of that dude to snipe him in the head and finish the quest. And the re-load after a death means you have to make the run again every time.
 

Ritley

Karazhan Raider
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That's what was pissing me off about that part. I had to try 6 times before I realized I could just blow past all the giants and go around the back side of that dude to snipe him in the head and finish the quest. And the re-load after a death means you have to make the run again every time.
I didn’t even kill him, I stopped right before I got to him and killed a few of the giants and then pulled him into the other assguards and looped around and closed the door. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
 

Drajakur

Molten Core Raider
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I'm definitely enjoying the game more now that I've (a) accepted the jankiness; (b) accepted the wokeness; and (c) unlocked the ability to dual-wield two great big fucking axes - one of which periodically sets assholes on fire. The main thing is coming to grips with the fact that this just isn't Assassin's Creed anymore - its Murderer's Creed. Sometimes I just walk into a village with my two big fuckoff axes and start chopping. Is it subtle, cunning, or stealthy? Nope - but it is fun to wade through like 30 corpses before kicking in a Church door and stealing some holy artifact. I also make a point of killing at least one peaceful little child-molesting priest when I visit towns. Not enough to unsync but just enough to send a message. I enjoy goofing around in Asgard and I'm reasonably sure that Thor's Hammer is somewhere in the game. Look, it ain't art but its not a bad time either.
 

Valderen

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Speaking of killing regular NPCs I got desynched twice because those morons got it by the poison cloud from Miasma skill. :)
 
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